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Hillarysworld -> All things Hillary -> A short attention span won't save Haiti. Enter Hillary Clinton (USA Today 2/02/10)
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TOPIC: A short attention span won't save Haiti. Enter Hillary Clinton (USA Today 2/02/10)
Jen the Michigander


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A short attention span won't save Haiti. Enter Hillary Clinton (USA Today 2/02/10)
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http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2010-02-02-column02_ST1_U.htm?csp=34

When Hillary Clinton talks about Haiti, she chooses her words like distance runners set their stride. For the secretary of State, America's commitment to the rebuilding of the earthquake-ravaged country is not a political sprint. It's a marathon.

"We're going to be there for the Haitian people and be very sensitive to their needs — and do the best job we can to help them," Clinton told me last week, shortly after she and representatives of 13 other nations concluded talks here on a framework for long-term aid to that impoverished country.

Within days of taking the State Department job, Clinton got President Obama's approval to make Haiti a focus of her diplomatic efforts. "They had suffered. ... They had really been knocked flat," she said of the four tropical storms and hurricanes that wracked Haiti in 2008. Those natural disasters took about 800 lives and inflicted $1 billion in damage.

So Clinton had been working closely with Haitian President Rene Preval for a year before the earthquake struck and piled the crumbled remains of collapsed buildings atop the damage done by storms and decades of political upheaval and mismanagement.

In a news conference at the close of the Montreal meeting, Clinton said the U.S. and other countries that were rushing emergency aid to Haiti would be more deliberate in determining a long-term fix to the nation's problems.

"So we're trying to do this in the correct order. ... We actually think it's a novel idea to do the needs assessment first, and then the planning, and then the pledging (of financial aid)," Clinton said.

That makes sense. Haiti may never get another chance like this to remake itself. People around the world have been traumatized by awful scenes of suffering and desperation — and, for now at least, they are queuing up to offer help.

But Clinton knows this rebuilding job — if not Haiti's very survival — depends on the willingness of wealthy nations to make a long-term financial commitment to a country that seems to have been on life support for generations. She understands that nothing short of a generation of sustained support will resuscitate Haiti. Clinton wants people to be able to look back at this difficult rebuilding work and say of this effort that "they took their time" and "did it right." That's the marathoner in her.

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Alex


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Such a loving, decent woman.  Thanks for being our "go-to girl," Hill!

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Hillarysmygirl16


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What's a shame is that Obama had to be asked to make Hati a priority Mr. Black President fails to impress me once again



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Sanders


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A good and quick needs assessment is key to steady progress and she knows it.

USAID has engaged a "Clinon-known party" (a campaign donor) in that needs assessment. The circumstances warranted a no-bid contract to get a good party engaged quickly, and it appears that they got a phenomenal deal on a < $100k contract with a known party.  Of course, they have been criticized for it. 

I think SOS Clinton has done a phenomenal job of focusing on Haiti while keeping all other balls rolling in the air. It is an incredible juggle she handles despite such grave real life matters as Bill having surgery or "seemingly simpler" issues like occasionally being stranded in (Saudi Arabia) airport launge because of aircraft issue.

Meanwhile, have you EVER seen her use a cue card in a Q&A session?  She ALWAYS her topic at hand backwards and forwards.  I am so so impressed after reading and seeing her address and Q&A at Al Jazeera TownInterview and the Carnegie Mellon Doha college and the College at Saudi Arabia. Each is a tribute to her excellence in leadership.  I am sure she has made a tremendous impression on the people - especially the women - of the Middle East.

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